Free The Den by Jennifer Abrahams

shrugged.
    Well, it will probably come to him later .
    Alex nodded his head in agreement.  Skyla looked out the window to take in the view.  The book was still droning on in the background, Stephen King’s words hinting at a home for the undead.  Could rural Maine really be so different from this place?  She noticed that the look of the houses along the two-lane local highway began to change.  She saw an old plantation and could imagine how life must have once bustled on that land.  Now it was old and beaten down.  Tiny dilapidated shacks bordered the road.  Skyla assumed they were old sharecropper housing.  The scenery seemed to be straight out of an old black-and-white movie.  Other barns along the way had been boarded up and left to die.  In the distance she could see a grand white house that was obviously lived in.  A swing set stood in the unfenced yard, and three cars and a pickup truck were proof that it was inhabited.  There didn’t seem to be any people, though.  She strained her eyes looking for any other evidence of adults or children. 
    “It’s different down here, you know,” Alex said.  “All people live side by side.  There isn’t any segregation along this highway.  Different races and all economic groups are in the same neighborhood.” 
    She couldn’t muster a reply.  She just kept watching.  The land itself was beautiful.  The grass was bright green, and the dirt peeking out from underneath was the color of clay.  She imagined it would feel very pleasant to walk around barefoot and dig her toes into the ground. 
    They drove for nearly an hour and passed by a town called Salem.  Skyla thought that was funny because that name was in the title of the book they were listening to. 
    “Yes.  Quite … a coincidence,” Alex agreed. 
    Though Alex sat in the car next to Skyla, his mind was elsewhere.  He knew he should be listening to the story and enjoying her company, but his attention kept wandering to a faraway place.  He was searching for the source of the familiarity.  Why did he seem to know this road?  They’d driven for about another hour when the vapors in Alex’s mind began to clear.  Panic replaced them. 
    Alex spit out, “I know this place.”

-Ten-
    A Dead End
     
     
    Skyla jumped at Alex’s exclamation.
    “You do?  How?  Where are we?”  Skyla flung the questions at Alex without waiting for an answer.  “The map says …”  Skyla paused as she looked down at her iPad.  She magnified the dot on the map.  “It is Talbotton.”
    Alex didn’t react to the name.  His eyes darted back and forth, taking in the scene around him more earnestly now.  “There will be a jailhouse coming up on the left,” he stated.
    Skyla looked out her window.  They veered to the left and two abandoned gas stations stood as a portal to Talbotton, one on the left and one on the right.  Both were boarded up.  They drove a short distance more, and there was some sort of business on the right side.  It looked closed, and there was no sign to greet visitors.   Then, on the left side, there appeared a one-room building with bars on the windows.  The words etched into the stone above the entrance were Detention Center .  The door stood open, but neither Skyla nor Alex dared to look inside.  The car crept on.  They passed a few more closed businesses and a structure that looked like a small school.  There was a dirt road on their right, leading through an eerie overgrowth of shrubs and trees.  She held her breath as they passed through the rest of the tired town.  Skyla wanted nothing to do with this part of the country.  She suspected that a Jeep with New York plates would be pulled over for just about anything.  Thank goodness he has a Southern accent .
    “Hill Street!” Alex shouted, causing Skyla to jump again and gasp with fright.  “This street is …  I mean … I know it.  I think.”  He wasn’t making any sense to Skyla.  “No.  Hill